The Real Us

. chapter 8 .

The girl looked behind her to see Kim Kyojun smiling at her teacher. The girl immedeatly averted her gaze to the floor. The two students hadn't spoken much since she and Sunghoon had started "dating" even though she had hoped their friendship would heal eventually.

Ms. Kang looked slightly surprised at the boy's sudden suggestion, but she checked her attendance list once more and nodded. "Alright, I guess you ca-"

"I'm her partner." Park Sunghoon brushed Kyojun's hand off of the girls shoulder as he turned to Ms. Kang, who looked confused. "Mr. Lee told me I was the odd number out, so I would be paired with the extra student from class 2." The male calmly explained as Kyojun looked ready to punch him.

Ms. Kang looked down at her attendance sheet once more before shrugging. "Okay then."

Sunghoon smiled and let out a sigh of relief before looking down to see Taeryoung who was looking at the ground with her dimples showing and trying not to laugh. The male gently placed his thumb and pointer finger on her dimples, moving her head to face him.

Taeryoung felt her heart doing backflips as she looked into his eyes. It's all fake. She told herself once more. She watched as his own dimples appeared on his cheeks as he smiled at her. She felt like she had been seeing his smile more and more each passing week and she definitely wasn't complaining.

"Would you two get a room please? " Hyejin scoffed as she and her partner walked over to the two. Flustered, they separated and looked away from each other. "Ms. Kang said to tell you guys to load onto the bus."

-

Some 3 and a half hours later, the students of Hanyuk were waiting on the plane, preparing for take off. Hyejin peered out the window excitedly and snapped some photos to post on her instagram. She turned to Jay who had already begun dozing off.

"Jay!" she whispered in his ear. "Hm?" he sleepily came to reality as he realized where he was.

"What happened?"

"Take a picture with me!"

"Do I have to?"

"Yes."

Without warning, Hyejin linked her arm with Jay's in order to pull the male into the frame.

"Smile!"

-

Taeryoung nervously glanced out the window and took a deep breath. "I can do this right? I can do this, I can do this, I can do this-"

"Who are you talking to?" A puzzled Park Sunghoon stared at the girl with a concerned expression.

"Myself."

"Ah, I see." Sunghoon didn't take his eyes off of her as the cabin crew declared that they were about to take off.

The male looked at the girls hands which were balled up in tight fists, making her knuckles turn a pale white.

He gently placed his hand over hers, noticing how cold her hands were despite the warmth of the cabin. "It's okay," he whispered in her ear.

As the plane began to move, Taeryoung shut her eyes tightly and bit her bottom lip. It felt like she couldn't move. Her heart was racing and she began to feel light-headed.

The male held her hand and leaned close to her, his lips almost making contact with her forehead. "Taeryoung," he whispered softly. "You look really ugly today."

"What?" the girl shot up in shock, "What did you just say?" But before she could bash his head or kick him in the shin, he pointed to the window.

The girl turned to find that they had made it into the air. She breathed a sigh of relief and finally released her fists. "See?" the male said with a smirk on his face. "It wasn't that bad was it?"

The girl narrowed her eyes at him in a teasing but intimidating expression. "I'm ugly today?" she repeated with an unintentional pout.

The male shrugged, "I mean it distracted you enough, didn't it?"

"Couldn't you have said something like 'you look so pretty today'?"

"Wouldn't that be lying?" Sunghoon said as Taeryoung elbowed him.